1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to programmable electronic devices, and more particularly to methods for transferring data to update or program features in an electronic device.
2. Background of the Invention
A well-known strategy for maintaining demand for new consumer items, known as “planned obsolescence,” is to continually design new consumer products with incremental technological improvements, such that consumers will wish to replace a consumer product with a new model every year or few years. With each year, new models for portable electronic devices become available with more memory, faster speed, and new or different features as compared to existing models. The rush of new product offerings has been particularly dramatic in the telephone industry, and especially for mobile cellular and cordless telephones. In addition to the standard functionality for placing telephone calls, modern telephones now include calling logs and telephone directories, and allow users to adjust ring volume and tone, among many other features. As one might expect, new telephone models are released each year with improved software for better features and functionality as compared with last year's telephones.
Although the strategy of planned obsolescence is effective for some consumer goods, in many circumstances it is more advantageous for companies to produce electronic devices that are programmable/upgradeable. This is popular with many consumers, who will opt to purchase a slightly higher cost item if it does not need to be replaced as frequently. Additionally, companies can earn revenue by selling software upgrades/updates, and can correct software bugs and perform other warranted repairs more easily and cost-effectively. Therefore, by producing electronic devices that are upgradeable, companies often can foster consumer goodwill and loyalty while still maintaining or improving profit margins.
By designing electronic devices to be upgradeable, manufacturers can also offer “after-market” software that enables users to customize the product. For instance, cordless telephones are now becoming available that enable users to adjust ring tone and graphics displays, and otherwise personalize the user interface. Users can make selections from lists of options stored in telephone memory to customize the telephone to the respective user's preferences. Since many consumers may be willing to purchase selections different from the standard offerings (there are an infinite number of possible ring tones) if they were made available, a market is created for software upgrades for cordless phones.
Unfortunately, the designs and operability of many types of portable electronic consumer devices renders it difficult to include functionality for upgrades. For example, once a digital device such as a cordless telephone is released into the consumer market, it becomes very difficult to upgrade or update the telephone with new software or firmware. One obvious method for upgrading a telephone is to manually disassemble the telephone and replace the processor or memory, or temporarily remove the memory from the telephone to add new software. Of course, this method is not practical for the vast majority of consumers, who are unlikely to have the skills necessary to perform such tasks.
Even if a portable electronic device can be especially designed to enable software updates, this might not be cost effective if the benefits from including this functionality are outweighed by the associated additional costs of design and manufacture. Adding functionality to an electronic device may involve additional computer architecture design, software programming, parts and components, which can be expensive. Further, regardless of the development costs, consumers will not utilize such a feature unless the steps that are necessary to update the device are relatively uncomplicated and easy to be performed. Since many portable electronic devices, such as cellular or cordless telephones, have somewhat small GUI displays with limited interfaces, this can be particularly challenging. Finally, the additional components that are necessary to enable the device to be upgraded must not overwhelm the existing physical size of the device or the spacing of other components within the device. Since, for example, cellular and cordless telephones are designed to be lightweight and comfortably hand-held, the weight and size associated with every component is always an important design consideration.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system for transferring data to a portable electronic device to facilitate updating and upgrading the functionality of the device, and which is relatively easy to use and does not significantly contribute to the cost, size and weight of the device.